“Mark Phillips was the joint pseudonym used by science fiction writers Laurence Mark Janifer and Randall Philip Garrett in the early 1960s. Together they authored several humorous short novels in the so-called "Psi-Power" series: Brain Twister (1962), The Impossibles (1963), and Supermind (1963). For Brain Twister they were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960 (under the novel's original title, "That Sweet Little Old Lady"

In hopes of replicating the success of spy stories such as James Bond (which were hugely popular at the time), the pair decided to combine a traditional spy narrative with humor and extra-sensory perception to appeal to readers of science fiction.”